A PRETTY BROAD GAP -- It's been a while since Americans have had to deal with a really good gap. Back in the '60s it was the missile gap.

BIG MEDIA THINKS SMALL -- The World Wide Web began by ripping off other media - magazines, newspapers and TV - to develop both content and online publishing formats. Now that the Internet is hot, mainstream media are borrowing from the Web.

A THIRD SCREEN FALLS INTO SECOND PLACE -- Imagine having the world of mobile media literally in the palm of your hand only to lose your grasp just as the market is poised to take off. That seems to be exactly what's happened to handheld computer marketer Palm, the pioneer in the field of so-called personal data assistants, according to the latest stats from the palm readers at Gartner Inc.

GOT CREATIVE? -- We can remember a time when the word "creative" came up and media people would instantly develop an inferiority complex as they scanned the room for guys dressed in jeans, fashionably chic designer glasses and expressions of cool detachment. They were the guys who held the client in rapt attention.

[X1+( (1-X1) (X2 x X3 x X4 x X5 x X6) (X7)] [X10] -- Honestly, we're not sure what all those Xs and numerals mean, but if it's what the future of marketing is all about, then we're pretty sure about one thing: We're screwed. We never did all that well in math, which probably explains why we're writing Riff columns and aren't billionaire software tycoons.